Bhí sé ag bagairt báistigh ach d’fhan sé tirm this autumn day as Bróna, Daniel and Diarmuid set up for the 366th Saturday on the cobbles.
The recently-opened Brazilian cafe near our stall appeared to be doing well in its second or third week open now.
To our surprise we noticed Anne’s Bakery café open again. We heard but cannot confirm that they were put under pressure to reopen under the terms of their lease.
From our point of view, it is good to see cafes open on the street, bringing more life to a street that a number of agencies seem would prefer to look as dead and as shabby as possible, in order one assumes to make it seem less worth saving.
PEOPLE
As usual, a cross-section of people came to sign the petition and among those with another country in their background were a woman and two teenagers from France and a young man and woman from Spain, one from Cadiz and the other from Madrid (it was her first day in Ireland). All of them very interested and supportive too.
Also interesting was a young girl who brought the older women with her over to the table. She will be studying the 1916 Rising at school, apparently and we told her guardians that we have conducted walking tours for schools in the past and would be happy to do so again.
Well-known socialist Manus O’Riordan died during the week and his funeral took place yesterday with a very large attendance. Manus’s father Michael served in the International Brigades supporting the Spanish Republic against the fascist-military coup and, among other things, Manus was an official of the Friends of the International Brigades Ireland.
We filmed Diarmuid singing Viva La Quinze Brigada, Christy Moore’s excellent tribute to volunteers of the 15th International Brigade, which is the one in which most of the Irish volunteers fought. Diarmuid was holding the flag of the Second Spanish Republic as he sang the song.
UPDATES
No update is yet available on the status of the speculator’s demolition plans.
WHY IS THE MOORE STREET AREA NOT INCLUDED IN THE DUBLIN FESTIVAL PROGRAMS?
Moore Street has been passed over by the annual Dublin History Week and Culture Night festivals recently. You’d think that both would apply very strongly to Moore Street, would you not? Well indeed and some years ago Moore Street was included in Culture Night with a tour in Irish by Diarmuid. But not since. In both the Mayor’s Moore Street Forum and the Market Expert Group, we pushed strongly for the Moore Street area to be included in all the Dublin festival programs: History, Culture, Joyce, Bram Stoker, Food, Trad Music …. All justifiable and easily done. But then, if you’re a property speculator, you’d hardly want people to get interested in the area you’re planning to demolish, would you? That’s logical but why are Dublin City Libraries (History Week) and others ignoring Moore Street as well?
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